These Last Few Days
by Kailorien
Summary: The group of teens are finally caught and held in the Stratton Prison. This is the telling of that time from Homer's perspective. How he copes with what they've done, who they face, and the road laid out before them.  Language Warning! Bad words ahead!


_Rated M for some language_

_Told from Homer's perspective_

**'These Last Few Days' - A Tomorrow Series FanFic**

That morning in the gym, was the beginning of one of the worst days of my life.

When we were finally caught making a run from the car yard, I knew our imprisonment was something probably going to be celebrated by the enemy, in fact, it was almost a relief, we'd been running for so long, risking everything. Blowing up Cobbler's Bay had really taken a toll, emotionally, as well as physically, on all of us.

It wasn't until I realized that Major Harvey was going to be overseeing our imprisonment that I knew Stratton Prison wasn't going to be just a well guarded holiday until the war was over.

Harvey, the pig, Jesus, I hated him. What a coward. What a traitor. I gave him what for when he interrogated me, I wasn't gonna give him nothin'.

"Now, Homer, don't you think it would be best for you and your friends if you just cleared the air now? List everything you and your little group got up to while you were destroying the countryside, every detail mind, and maybe there will be some leniency for your confirmed charges."

"Go to hell..." I had sneered.

I could see him going red from the neck up, spit starting to form in the corners of his mouth. He started to resemble the angry frothing dog I thought he was.

"You friend Ellie was quite talkative, especially once we told her we already knew about the involvement of the New Zealander troops."

"What a load of crock!" I spat at his feet in disgust. "You're a filthy bastard, a traitor and a coward. I've known sheep that are more loyal than you, even my dog would piss on the ground you walk on. Those people at your camp, all of those that died because you KNEW they were walking into a trap; THOSE people; - their blood is on your hands, you murderer! I hope their faces haunt you until the day you die, you piece of shit."

My hands were handcuffed to the chair I was sitting on, but if I'd been able to, I would have knocked the pig for a six. The look on his face, a blotted mixture of red and purple, said he knew it too.

He called for the guards and before I knew it, I was locked back in my tiny cell.

I paced. Up and down, back and forth. I felt like one of the lions I'd seen at the zoo when mum had taken me and my brothers when I was five. I was so impressed and so scared of its size and strength, I hadn't given any thought back then to how it would actually be feeling. What would be going through its mind as it made low threatening growls as it searched for a way out of its cage.

The cell I was in was tiny, not really much bigger than the cleaner's closet back at school. There was a bed in one corner, a hard, uncomfortable thing it was too, - a toilet in the opposite corner and a desk and chair bolted to the ground against one wall, although the chair was no longer there, because after my first initial meeting with Major Harvey, I took the anger I'd been storing up since the beginning of the war out on it and managed to snap one of its legs.

For weeks we'd been held here, it wasn't until they started letting us out for exercise that we could actually see each other again.

I was so relieved to see them all, even Kevin. Ellie was the last to be brought out. Like the rest of us, she looked skinny and tired, but it was still my Ellie, still my girl. I could see the hint of rebellion flash in her eyes when she caught us up on her news.

Everyone seemed to be fairing as best as they could. Ellie and I had apparently been selected as the ringleaders of our group and were the only two of us six who were left on E Block – the high security prisoners section. Kevin and Lee were now sharing cells with other prisoners, mostly other renegade Australians who'd tried to do some damage, or had a bad attitude towards the invaders. And Fi and Robyn were sharing a cell. I could see the envy on Ellie's face when they'd shared that piece of news.

"I just wish we knew what they were going to do with us." Fi sighed.

Robyn frowned, "I've been thinking, over and over, about how to try and break out of here, but it seems impossible, especially for all of us. The guards are pretty hopeless about giving us any information on how you or Homer are doing Ellie; we're not allowed to speak of you pretty much."

"Don't worry Robyn, if there was a way out, Ellie would have thought about it by now." I sighed, equally as depressed.

Ellie shrugged, "I couldn't even commit suicide if I wanted too."

"Oh Ellie..." Fi sighed and reached out to her, "I know there's no way out, but who knows, they may send us back to Wirrawee, to the showgrounds even, if we're here long enough..."

"I don't think suicide is the answer... for any of us." Lee responded. "Let's not give the bastards the pleasure of thinking that they've won."

And this was the way our hour of exercise was usually spent. Very unphysical, unless you counted how much our mouths moved when we talked. Occasionally, we'd have a game of chasey or even duck, duck, goose when were inclined to do some running.

The day I'd learned that I was to be executed, I felt no emotion. I started wondering what life would really be like, after death, or if there was really any afterlife at all. I'd been raised a good catholic boy, not that I'd gone to church unless it was for anything important, like a cousins christening or such, but even if I had, I wondered if God would still let me into heaven after all the things we'd done in this war, after all the people we'd killed.

I started thinking of Robyn, only because I knew she was the most religious out of all of us and if there was anyone who was gonna make it into heaven, it was her, even if she had to argue it out with one of God's angels or something, she'd make it. She's the only one of us who ever really believed in all of that sort of stuff anyway, plus, she'd tried to have as little blood on her hands as possible, even if this was a war.

I reckoned Fi would have made it into heaven without blinking an eyelid. She was pretty much perfect. I wonder why I ended up pushing her away so much after the experience with Harvey's Heroes. She was beautiful, graceful, even now when she was suffering just as much as any of us physically, she still made my heart go pitter-patter in a way I'd never admit to any of the guys.

I stopped thinking about heaven after then, because I didn't want to know what the outcome may be for the rest of us. We'd all been pretty callous and destructive, not that I'm saying it was a bad thing, but I didn't want to think of Ellie, or Kevin, or Lee not getting into Heaven for the things we'd done or hadn't done in the past.

Without even asking, one of the guards bought me in a pencil and a piece of paper with my lunch today. What was this? Homework?

"You write." The guard said pointing at the piece of paper. "You write family. Last time." And I was left alone to think about it.

It hit me then, that this would be the last contact I'd have with my parents, with my brothers and sisters. I pushed the feeling of bile rising in my throat back down and replaced it with the anger I had towards the Invaders, towards the war.

I tore the piece of paper in half. On one side of one half, I wrote to my parents, George, Fillipo and Rosa, my brothers and sister. All the usual lovey stuff of course, but I made sure I told them I was proud that the enemy was so scared of me that they thought the only way they were going to stop me, was to kill me.

On the other side of the note, I wrote to Ellie's parents. They needed to know how much Ellie meant to me. How important she'd been to our survival. She was an only child and I wasn't sure if she would get to tell them anything herself. Because unlike the others, only Ellie and I were given the death penalty, we'd been born ringleaders I suppose.

The last piece of paper I saved for Major Harvey. I needed to vent my anger with words and so he became my target, not that he was undeserving, but I'd rather keep my knuckles from breaking if I took my wrath out on the cell walls.

I wrote down every obscene word I could think of. Every insult, every threat and every single way I could think of pulling him down to the depths of hell. I didn't realize how much hate I had stored up in me until that moment.

It appeared that things were a little jumpy around the prison over the past few days. I'd heard bombs going off at a distance, and occasionally the walls of my cell would shudder and a little dust would float down from the ceiling.

I mused that if we were being bombed by the Kiwis, they most likely didn't care about hitting the prison, although I didn't want to get taken out by friendly fire, I almost wished that a big fat bomb would land on Major Harvey's office.

When we were let out for exercise, I marveled at the extent of damage caused by the air raids. There were sections of walls missing, windows blown, although metal bars still there to stop us having any thought of escape and rubble was everywhere. It seemed that the raids were becoming more and more vigilant in this area, and were no longer just night raids. They started coming in the afternoon and with more force, not that I was really complaining.

When two guards came to collect me on what was to be my last exercise, I tried to prepare myself emotionally. It'd be the last time I got to see or speak to my friends. My heart twisted in pain, especially when I thought of Ellie and Fi.

Kevin was an alright bloke. A bit wimpy and he could be pretty stubborn, but otherwise he was ok. He went through a lot of shit when he took Corrie to the hospital and never ratted on any of us. That takes some form of strength, and I guess I had to give him that much.

Lee, well, honestly, I didn't really know too much about him. I didn't pay any attention to him at school back in peace time, and when we first went on our camping trip I wondered why Ellie had bothered to invite him at all. He was often withdrawn, and quiet, but I had a steady respect for him after what we'd been through. He may be quiet, but he always carried himself with a sense of duty, whatever the cost to himself personally.

Robyn, well, Robyn was Robyn. She was gutsy, argumentative, smart, but man oh man did she have the moral conscience of a nun. Not that she ever really pushed it on anyone, but I guess I admired her for sticking to her guns with her beliefs. It must be pretty hard to believe that there's a God when everything you know is being torn away from you. She would always have your back, even if it meant beating someone with a stick and not shooting them with a gun if it was an option. I liked her, I guess, she was a pretty good person to have around.

Fiona Maxwell was a completely different bucket of fish. I remembered all the times I used to show off in school, trying to get her attention, but never succeeding, until that fateful camping trip Ellie and Corrie had planned. They thought I was a screw loose when I suggested Fi came. She was a friend of theirs, but Fi wasn't a Rural, she was a Townie. She was from a well off family on the posh side of Wirrawee, her parents were lawyers or some such high class and I'd never seen her looking daggy.

I found myself grinning slightly as they led me to the gym for exercise that day.

Fiona Maxwell was gorgeous. Long blonde hair and more grace than a heron. She'd just have to look at me with her big innocent eyes and I'd turn to mush. But she'd certainly proved she wasn't as fragile as we all thought. She's about the only one of us that's managed to hold herself together so far, and she'd never back away in the face of danger. I liked that in a girl.

Tears actually formed in my eyes when I saw Ellie enter the gym. She looked so sullen, so scrawny and her eyes echoed a sad look of longing, but her face was a picture of calm. That wasn't the Ellie I knew, or loved.

We were no longer allowed to hug, or touch, and were each assigned a corner of the gym.

I watched Ellie walk in, observing us like we were all puppets on a stage.

We stood around feeling pretty hopeless and not really allowed to say much to each other. Fi just sat on the ground and cried, while Lee starred at Ellie from his corner, his face twisted in pain, Robyn was praying and Kevin stood with his head in his hands.

When the sirens started everything was suddenly thrown into chaos. The guards along the wall and at the doors started shouting at each other and gesturing wildly. When a loud explosion sounded nearby, it sent my ears ringing and then sent the guards running. They were obviously worried about how close the bombs were falling enough to leave us and run, but not stupid enough to tell us to stay put and lock the gym door behind them.

I saw Ellie race to the door and shake it, with no prevail, it was sealed tight. She looked to the windows, and then shouted something at me. I couldn't hear her above the high pitched noises in my ears. I shook my head.

We all jumped to our feet and went tearing around the gym, looking for signs of weakness; any means of escape, but there was none.

That's when another bomb fell. Although, this time, it must have been so close, it sent us all flying through the air, it was like one of those massive deadly tornadoes we used to see on TV shows in America, the sort that could pick up houses and cars without so much as trying.

I felt like I'd received a kick in the stomach and the back of my head ached something chronic. I'm surprised I still managed to stand I was feeling that dizzy and that weighed down with rubble. I saw Kevin wandering around with a stunned look on his face, Ellie was on her feet almost instantly, walking awkwardly towards where Fi lay and Robyn was being the sensible one and looking for weapons from one of the guards from the top wall who obviously hadn't made it to the shelter in time and now lay at her feet dead as a doornail. Lee moved past me quickly, pulling on my arm as he did so. He was right, we had to move. He went to Ellie, and took Fi from her arms. Ellie motioned me towards Kevin who was still standing around and I ran to him, cringing at the pain in my left ankle.

"Comm'on Kevin!" I yelled, taking him my the hand and leading him out of the 20 foot gap that had been blown out of the gym wall and followed Lee and Fi out onto the prison driveway.

There was confusion for a moment, when I heard Major Harvey's voice ring out across the barren landscape. I saw him then. Robyn had thrown the riffle she had collected from the dead soldier on the ground and stood with her hands in the pockets of her jumper, which Major Harvey held a pistol pointed at her head.

"All right boys and girls!" he screeched, his face blue with anger, "The party's over. Everyone lie down on the ground."

For a second, no one moved, until he waved the gun in Robyn's face, spittle coming from his mouth as he yelled "Quickly! Or I'll shoot this one!"

We all began to kneel; only Robyn remained standing. She was fiddling with something in her pockets. I saw Major Harvey looking at us triumphantly, like taking us captive was his life's work come to fruition.

It wasn't until I heard Ellie hoarsely scream Robyn's name that I knew what was happening.

Robyn gave Ellie a scared little smile and my eyes widened like saucers when I saw the grenade pin slip from her fingers, I went to yell at her to STOP! But before the words left my mouth she was gone.

She and Major Harvey had simply disappeared.

I balked, unsure what to do. We all looked at each other in disbelief. Robyn was gone. One minute she was there, breathing, living person and then nothing, dust. I couldn't move.

Lee was the first to rise.

"Come on. We must keep moving." He said, going to each of us, pulling us up from our knees.

I went to Ellie, wrapped one of her arms across my shoulders, and held her close as we followed after Lee. I could see both fear and surprise in Ellie's eyes. Her face was a muddle of tears and dirt and I'm sure we all looked exactly the same.

We jumped in a blue car that had been abandoned and drove a couple of k's, until we started getting shot at from the air. It was then we clambered out of the car, lucky enough not to get hit and ran towards the highway. It was then we saw a big American fighter jet come to a screeching holt on the tarmac ahead, billows of smoke pouring from it.

We all hurried straight towards the pilot who was running madly away from it and we met him in a large paddock, just to the side of the highway.

He was a kiwi, red haired, and full of words I couldn't really make out. Fi and Ellie were pumping him with questions and demanding answers. I didn't hear much of it, until I heard Fi yell "Take us with you!"

The pilot was surprised at first, Ellie tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen.

Then we heard, rather than saw, a helicopter land only meters away.

"Wait!" I said, ignoring the salty tears that seemed to fall from my eyes that were opened taps, "Wait! Did you hear about Cobbler's Bay being blown up a couple of months back? And everything was wrecked?"

The pilot confirmed he had, even bragged that his mate took pictures of it.

"That was US!" Kevin said defiantly, showing the first spark of rebellion I'd seen in him for weeks.

We were a mess, just looking at us you'd know we'd been through hell. Our faces were black with soot, dust and snot. Our eyes were raw red with tears and the smoke, I wouldn't say we were the sort who looked like we'd been sitting back and hiding since the war began.

After a few long moments, the pilot turned on his heel and motioned to us to follow, "Hurry up!"

We all hobbled and limped our way at our quickest pace behind him.

Once in the chopper, blankets and water were quickly given to us by the crew. We were all placed on stretchers and told to lie down and rest, that we'd be in New Zealand soon.

I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

One part of me was relieved. We'd been through so much, done so much, since this war had started; all I wanted was a nice long hot bath a decent feed of lamb and to sleep in a comfortable bed. But as we made our way across the Tasman, I found myself thinking of those we were leaving behind, our families, our friends ... Robyn.

I looked at Ellie and Fi. They had each other's hands in a death grip, I don't think they let go the whole way.

We may be safe for now, but I knew, oh boy did I know, we were never going to be safe again.


End file.
